The Importance Of Good Backup

My Family and I saw Jakob Dylan on Saturday Night, at the City Winery (great venue for live music by the way). If you don’t know who he is, think front man and founder for/of The Wallflowers, as well as Bob Dylan’s son. His music is rich, and I am a big fan. Yet make no mistake; that show would have been flat without the backup of Kelly Hogan and Nora O’Connor. The chemistry they provided, and the many dimensions they added to the vocal tracks, moved the show forward with grace and oomph. While Dylan is an incredible songwriter, and a musical force and leader, even he needs the backup to transform his music from 2D to 3D. The girls did that, and the result was magical.

I think President Obama is a brave thought leader, whether one agrees with his stances or not, who today can use the benefit of some Backup Support; I am not sure he ever had it from the beginning, let alone now, as his inner circle has been moving on to greener pastures. Had he better support all along, some brave ideas of his would have been enhanced into some great ideas, instead of the big-business mish-mosh that those ideas have morphed into. Healthcare reform, which was supposed to be something great for the small and Forgotten Man. has turned out to be, to quote Borat, “Not so much”.  Meanwhile have you glanced at the charts of Pfizer, Merck, and United Healthcare since January 2009? Sheesh. And Financial Reform, which was to set the Too Big Too Fail Banks and Brokers straight, also has Bank CEO’s giddy with smiles and laughter (out of public site of course). Subsidized earnings have beat even the loftiest expectations, and their charts (BAC, GS, JPM) since January 2009 also demonstrate how easily big business can adapt to any challenge, courtesy of good old Lobbying. So it appears that The President may not have had good Backup, although Big Business certainly did.

Looking at Market Structure going forward, we have been very critical of how our prior market structure, although not perfect, was conducive to capital-raising and broad participation. The current structure, fragmented as it is, and refereed by for-profit exchanges that have clear vested interests in the success of some participants versus others, is a problem. However the question is, how can we fix that, as I am not sure Exchange Nationalization is in anyone’s crystal ball. I think our regulators need some good Backup Support, and ideas, from the traditional buy-side (money managers, mutual, and hedge funds), and they need it soon. How can equal access and fairness be worked in to the for-profit models of the exchanges and ATS’s, as clearly that must take place for money to flow back into the markets, which would benefit everyone, ironically, including the exchanges? This question needs some focusing on. Maybe then, some public exchanges, NDAQ for example, would see their stock prices rise off January 2009 levels as other financial stock prices have.

Congratulations Texas and San Francisco!

Where we left off 4:00pm EST:

DJIA                                             11,132.56                                       -14.01

S&P500                                          1,183.08                                      +2.82

NASDAQ Composite                     2,479.39                                      +19.72

Futures now at 7:30am EST:

DJIA:                                       +63

S&P500:                                  +7.90

NASDAQ 100:                        +10.75

Key Data out today:

 

08:30:                          Chicago Fed Activity Index (survey -0.30)

10:00:                          Existing Home Sales (expected 4.3million)

10:00:                          Existing Homes Sales MoM (expected 4.1%)

10:30:                          Dallas Fed Manufacturing Activity (survey -8.5%)

 

 

Since the prior close, some key stories:

 

–          Dollar weakens on G20 Skepticism, all other assets rise. 

–          The US proposal to reduce trade imbalances by setting hard targets on current account balances was rejected at the meeting. 

–          Gold – stop-loss buying in Asia, helped by stronger-than-expected Australian PPI data overnight, drove the yellow metal up to $1349 by the time London opened.  Physical demand accelerates.

–          Cotton prices limit up; up 27% this month.

–          Reuters says that most of the remaining independent sec software companies could vanish in the coming months; WBSN, FIRE, and FTNT could all be targets.

–          The National Association of Business Economics suggests that a net 33% of US companies plan to increase capex over the next 12 months, up from 25% at the end of July. 59% of respondents said sales rose in Q3, the highest level since January 2006. “The recovery from the Great Recession continues, with business conditions improving.

–          Singapore Exchange will buy ASX for $8.3 billion. Co-location is alive and well.

–          Regulators shut 7 banks over the weekend; year total = 139.

–          AAPL will no longer pre-install Flash on Macs.

–          CTV in talks with Carlyle group ($3b number).

–          Barron’s: The cover story spoke of the growth of private cloud computing and the winners and losers from this trend. Positive mentions for AMZN, GOOG, MSFT, INTU, VMW, CNQR, SFSF, CRM. Cautious comments for HPQ, ORCL, CSCO, IBM, RAX, TMRK and SVVS mentioned as potential takeover candidates for a company looking to play the trend.

 

 

 

Earnings:

 

  • Pre-open: BOH, BWP, BYD, CKSW, CRNT, CYOU, DCOM, DSPG, IVZ, JAKK, KALU, KVHI, LKFN, LO, MHO, NS, NVE, ROP, RSH, SHLM, SOHU, STBA
  • After Market Close: AAN, ACGL, ADVS, AEC, AMGN, ATHR, BAS, BEAV, BXS, CHE, CR, CVTI, DDR, DRIV, EW, EWBC, FDEF, FIBK, FNB, HRS, HTCO, HXL, HXM, IDTI, INSU, ISBC, LTC, LUX, MAS. MBVT, MIPS, MTXX, NARA, NATI, NBTB, OMI, PCL, PLXT, PPD, RCII, RGA, SILC, SLG, SNV, SUPG, TMX, TXN, UCTT, VECO, VLTR, VRTX, WRB, WSBC, ZIXI, ZRAN

 

 

Significant Movers This Morning:

CTV +35%, ODP +9%, IP +5.5%, RRI + 5%, C +3%, WYNN LOWER